First Night Jitters // Open!

[Elyse Blackery]

The first few hours of Elyse's new life hadn't exactly been promising. She'd arrived at the large campus a little after 4pm and, after been shown to her room, had been left to unpack. The two suitcases she'd brought with her hadn't held very much. The clothes she'd brought from her step father's apartment fitted easily into the wardrobe and draws, all mixing together into a mass of blacks, greys and blues. A painting her step father had made had been pinned up above her new bed. It was a large, long canvas, the New York skyline picked out in bright acrylic paints. Elyse wasn't completely sure what had possessed the man to give it to her as she left. The cynical part of her brain guessed it was to appease her mother, but she liked it all the same.

Not long after the unpacking was complete, there was bustling outside her door. The young woman poked her head out into the corridor and watched a few girls file out into the stairwell. Was it dinner?


Elyse slipped from her dorm room and stood, waiting for the majority of students to pass until she entered the corridor. There was no reason so push to among a crowd just to get the the cafeteria quicker. Once the first wave had passed Elyse joined the students, hands stuffed deep into her sweatshirt pockets, as she followed.


When she reached the counter to collect her tray, Elyse couldn't help but pause. There were people in front of her, hell they were all around her! Maybe she should have grabbed her gloves and just dealt with the weird looks they would attract. With a bustling crowd and exposed skin? Elyse's skin crawled just thinking about it...

Sadly it didn't seem like she had much choice.


Reluctantly Elyse's hands slid from her the inside of her sweatshirt and took a hold of her tray. She turned, looking out over the crowd in the dining hall.

That was the next problem; there was no empty tables... Where would she sit?

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

There was nearly empty table though. Zoe sat at her table all alone, with people pretending very hard that she didn't exist. That wasn't the normal "not existing" either, but a sort of focused ignoring that should be all too familiar to any high school student. It was hard to see why: Zoe was a pretty girl, though perhaps a little overdressed. She wore a long-sleeved blouse with a nice floral pattern, with white cloth gloves covering her hands. A long skirt could just barely be seen beneath, with tights covering there. A scarf sat on the floor next to her, along with some books and such. But everyone was most certainly ignoring the table.

Zoe sighed, picking at her food absently. she was beginning to wonder if she should even bother taking her meals in the cafeteria any more. As she thought, she ventured looking around. Strangely enough, she thought she saw someone who looked almost as skiddish as Zoe herself. Zoe wasn't going to motion toward her or anything though; she wouldn't have done that even if she hadn't become a one-woman leper colony. Instead she bent down, trying to eat her food and look less noticeable. Everyone else had been ignoring her, so this new girl should too.

Even if there were several empty chairs surrounding Zoe's table, doubtless looking invited to someone frustrated and wanting to just sit down and eat, especially someone new.

[Elyse Blackery]

As much as she wanted to, Elyse knew she couldn't stand in the walk-way forever. In fact, that would be a very good way of knocking into someone. Her lip clamped itself firmly between her teeth as looked round the bustling room. There were groups at most tables, full of teenagers happily chatting over their meals. Mere months ago Elyse would have checked her lip stick, stuck on a smile, and sat at a table with little regard to how full it was. Now though? Elyse wouldn't even entertain the idea.

However, she was still going to have to move. After another glance round the room Elyse's grey eyes settled on a table which was almost empty. There was just one girl, sat alone and picking at her food.
Well... It was the best of a bad situation. 

Elyse picked her way, hyper-sensitively, across the hall. Her black boots stopped behind one of the many spare seats at the table. Should she just sit down? Or ask? 
When had social situations become so difficult? What had her manifestation done to her? Elyse had been happy, popular and... now what? Flinching away from crowds? Hiding away from people?
When had Elyse become the kind of person she used to make fun of?

"Excuse me..." Her voice coming out strained as if it was about to crack. Elyse swallowed in an attempt to moisten her throat. 
"Is anyone... Sitting here?" 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The cracked voice nearly made Zoe jump. She looked up at the girl, blinking as if not quite believing that the girl had actually come over here. The question hung in the air for a few moments, with Zoe still more or less staring at the other girl. Talk, Zoe. Normal people talk to people. Okay, so you're not normal; she's not either. Okay, she's not the Lesbian Pikachu or whatever... stop thinking, just talk.

"Um, no?" she ventured, looking at the chair. She scooted a little away from the girl, as if the other needed room to sit at the mostly empty table. "You, um, might not want to sit with me though," said Zoe, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm not exactly... popular, right now." she flushed and looked down at her food, wishing that her power involved turning invisible or something.

Maybe she should just leave; then this girl could sit at the table by herself and not be labeled some kind of social pariah.

[Elyse Blackery]

Well that wasn't exactly the reception she'd hoped her. Elyse blinked, more than a little taken back by the reply. Unpopular? Well maybe that wasn't surprising, considering the way the girl stared at the new arrival. Elyse shifted her weight to her other foot a little uncomfortably. 
This had clearly been a bad idea... Maybe she should have just stayed in her room. Life might be more hungry, but far less awkward.

An eyebrow arched upwards as the girl elaborated on her answer. She was unpopular? Well didn't being new trump being traditionally unpopular? That was how it had worked when she'd moved to her New York middle school. 
To be honest Elyse doubted it would be much different here.

"Its... Not like I have much to loose..." Elyse's mouth twitched in what may be considered a ghost of a smile. She placed her tray down and carefully pulled her chosen chair out. There was still a respectful distance between the two girls, even after Elyse sat down. They wouldn't even need to speak, they could just eat.

Before picking up her cutlery Elyse's hands twitched the cuffs of her burgundy sweatshirt up, as if she was cold in the perfectly mild room. As little skin as possible, that's what she needed. 
It was only then which Elyse noticed the other girl's hands. They were covered themselves in white gloves. Her eyes widened in surprise.
But then it could just be a fashion statement... The girl looked stylish enough. 

After a few heartbeats too long Elyse tore her gaze away and focused them back on her food. Suddenly, she wasn't sure if she was all that hungry.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe attempted a smile to match Elyse's, one that was actually a little real. It was nice to know that at least someone, well, someone besides Zoe's girlfriend, was willing to at least be seen with her. Zoe wagered that someone would eventually point out to Elyse that she was sitting with some kind of crazed lesbian predator, but Zoe certainly wasn't going to be the one to mention. Instead, she looked back down at her food, picking at it for a bit. It was as she did that she saw the other girl's sweatshirt.... and noticed how very much skin the other girl covered, and how she flinched away.

That's... that's exactly what I do. Zoe blinked a few times. She stared, realized that she stared, and then shifted in her seat. She should just ask. Just say it. They were in the Academy, talking about powers was usual. The girl was knew; she'd probably appreciate someone just acknowledging it and saying as much. Talking wasn't that hard, even to someone new. She seemed nice after all. Well, maybe just backed into a corner, but still nice about it.

"Um," managed Zoe. she cleared her throat, then looked over at Elyse, still shy, not quite willing to look the other girl in the face. "Um, does---does your power, um, does it involve touching people? Like, skin to skin?" she held up a gloved hand when she said it, which only further showed just how covered she was, as only a little bit of the pale skin between wrist and arm showed with the gesture.

[Elyse Blackery]

This was a bad idea... Elyse was seeing that now. She should have just stayed in her room. There were people all around her, literally surrounding her. Well, they weren't ganging up on her or anything like that but... Being there was enough. Accidents could happen and Elyse didn't want to make any enemies on her first night. 
Maybe she should just eat her food and make a swift exit, that seemed like the best idea for all involved. 

Carefully she grasped her fork and stabbed a few salad leaves, though it didn't make it do her mouth. The girl spoke up again and the shock almost sent the fork from her hand. Elyse glanced up, chewing nervously on her lip. 
Was that a normal question here? Asking about peoples powers? It seemed such a private matter... Then again, if everyone had a power, was it normal here? 

Elyse set down her fork, her right hand going to her left to nervously cover it.
"Yea... yes I suppose it does..." Elyse's gaze clocked onto the other girl's gloves as she held them up. So they weren't just for fashion...

"If I touch..." Elyse ran a finger absently down her left hand, "Someone I can, see inside their head. Their memories... Most people don't really take kindly to me poking about in their buisness..."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

So another with a similar power then. Zoe lowered her hand as Elyse explained; she hadn't missed the slight expression of shock either, or the earlier mention of being new. When she says new, she means very new; new to all this. Zoe watched, her brown eyes knowing, as Elyse explained how her ability worked. A touch and Elyse could see everything about people... that sounded almost as bad as Zoe's ability... which she figured she should probably share.

"That does sound quite bad," admitted Zoe, nodding. She raised her own hand up, mostly looking at it. "Whenever I touch someone skin to skin I paralyze them. It's," she flushed, lowering her hand, "sort of like those frogs you hear about with poison in their skin. It's not a lot of fun," she lowered her hand into her lap, staring down at her food for a few seconds, considering. she took a deep breath and looked up at Elyse. Zoe figured she might as well try to talk, seeing as she wasn't sure she really wanted to eat just yet.

"I'm Zoe," she said. Her arm twitched a moment, as if wanting to shake, but she instead opted to nod. "And sorry if, um, the whole powers thing made you feel uncomfortable. I just, well, you were acting, um, kind of like how I did, so I just..." Zoe trailed off, fidgeting again. "Anyway, if you, um, don't want to talk about it or, uh, don't want to talk or anything that would be okay, I guess," she picked at her food again, wanting to show that she was perfectly fine with just eating in silence if need be.

[Elyse Blackery]

Elyse tried very hard to keep the shock of her face as the girl across from her explained her ability. That was something out of a horror movie, hell this whole place was?
Sure the man explained Bellefonte to her mum and step dad when he'd arrived for her that morning but - Hell... This was real! This girl's touch could literally paralyze her... Who else had powers like that? Was this what the school really was? A place to house the freaks in the hope they'd pick each other off to save anyone else the trouble?!

The crumbling was starting again. Elyse recognized the feeling all too well. She was clutching at straws, keeping herself together by bare threads. How was she meant to cope with this? People like, like herself didn't exist! It was stuff of comic books and science fiction movies.
And now it was her life... How did you cope with a change like that?

"That's i-interesting," Elyse squeaked, unsure of what else to say. She looked down at her food again, suddenly not so hungry. Hell her stomach was churning up a storm, food was the last thing it needed.

So her name was Zoe... Well that was something.
"I'm Elyse," She nodded in response, her hands gripping the cutlery firmly. Hand shakes were well off the table in Elyse's mind. 

The apology snapped Elyse out of her head slightly. Had she really made the girl -Zoe- that bad? She was the first person to so much as speak to her in this place, kind or otherwise. Had she made her feel that awkward she felt the need to apologize?
Elyse dropped her fork with a clatter, her hand going to her hair. Her fingers pushed themselves through her long fringe, trying to think about what to say. 
"No... No, please I'm sorry. This is just, well it's all new. All of it, I'm still..." Elyse sighed, trying to work out how best to explain herself, " This time yesterday I thought I was going crazy. This time last month I was... Well not like this..."
Did that even make sense? Elyse was't really sure... Poor Zoe. She probably hadn't been expecting to play agony aunt when 10 minutes ago when she'd sat down to eat.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Interesting was certainly one way to react to hearing about someone's powers. Zoe tried to remember what it was like when she'd first gotten here, hearing about all the strange powers and such. She'd gotten lucky: the first few people she'd met had relatively tame powers, stuff like turning invisible and talking to spiders and the like. Well, there was Devyn, but Zoe definitely wasn't going to think about that right now.

The girl had a name now: Elyse, and Zoe found herself nodding as she heard it. "That's, ah, a pretty name,' she tried, feeling like she should at least try something. There was more squirming and awkwardness, likely involving prodding the food as if that would somehow get it to leap from the plate to Zoe's mouth. Zoe had tried her apology, only to end up jumping not long after as a spoon clattered. She looked over at Elyse, wondering if she'd said or done something wrong again.

New, Zoe nodded, "I remember what that's like," she said, setting down her own silverware. "I didn't get my ability until a few months ago. I, um, spent some time on the run and all, but I just got here about a month ago myself," she tried a shy smile, trying to say without words what, well, she was saying with words, that she understood the whole situation very well. "It's all quite a lot to take in," Zoe agreed, looking around at the cafeteria. At least people weren't throwing snot balls or setting something on fire. Sometimes they did just have normal lunch periods, and this looked like it was going to be precisely that.

[Elyse Blackery]

"I remember what that's like." 

Well, Elyse hadn't really considered that. Everyone in the school must have been the newbie once. Every single member must have had that terrifying manifestation moment, where they swore they were loosing their minds. Perhaps Elyse was the newest teenager to manifest, but she certainly wasn't the first. Maybe Zoe was exactly the sort of person who would understand. She'd been there. She could be exactly what Elyse needed.

It came as a surprise that Zoe was fairly new herself. Sure, having been at the school for a few months was a hell of a lot longer than Elyse, but in the grand scheme of things? It didn't all that substantial.
"And you think it's better? To be here I mean?" After a few months Zoe surely had an opinion on the school while Elyse was still withholding judgement.
A few months here was surely enough time to make that decision. 

A lot to take in seemed like a serious understatement. In the space of a month Elyse's whole world had been turned completely upside down, culminating in her new home - this school. Maybe she could make a new life for herself here, although Elyse was still skeptical. 
"Definitely... Apart from anything else, this place is huge... I only made it in here because there were people to follow."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe stopped to think for a moment as Elyse asked her question. Was it better here? Arguably not for Zoe, not at this very moment, what with her being exiled to a strange table in the middle of no where. But in general though, yes, in general it did seem like a better place for people like them. Zoe found herself nodding, and the more she nodded, the more she sort of convinced herself of it as well. Sure, bad things had happened, but it would've been worse had she not been here, been near people that understood and could process.

"People understand here," she finally ventured, her voice still as soft and gentle as ever. She did finally venture to look up and meet Elyse in the eyes yet again. She could see the confusion and the near terror at this whole place, such familiar feelings to poor Zoe. She took another deep breath, forcing herself to try and be calm. This was another person who was new, scared, and confused; the last thing she needed was for Zoe to be her normal, panicky self again. She just needed to think about what Devyn would do... besides the aggressive flirting, that is.

"Yes, yes it is rather large,' agreed Zoe, looking around. "I think it's because there seem to be more and more of us everyday," the student body did grow more consistently here than at any other school Zoe had ever attended. "Don't worry though," she managed a smile now, "there are quite a few nice people, even among the staff. There's probably more nice people than mean," Zoe smiled again, hoping that she sort of qualified.

[Elyse Blackery]

Understanding? Well that seemed better than nothing. It probably wasn't so surprising, if everyone had been the scared new kid who'd only just manifested. Really, if there was anywhere in which she could be understood, it would be here.
"I guess it could be worse..."Somehow... Well school would definitely be worse, with the comments and whispers following her like a bad smell. The words which had been hurled at her while walking down the corridor still made her shudder. Freak, witch, Satanist - that had definitely been the worst. Perhaps she would have dealt better with the criticisms if the insults hadn't been coming her so called friends. That fact stabbed her in the stomach far harder than any words ever had.

If the school was growing as quickly as Zoe said then hopefully Elyse wouldn't be the new kid for long. Perhaps once she got started in the school properly it would be better, Elyse just had to force herself to be positive.
"It did surprise me how many there were like me- well, us." She had felt so alone yet really? There was a school full of people with powers. It seemed somehow impossible that Elyse had never heard of anyone like her before. 
Mind you, maybe people were just better at hiding it than her. 

"Even the staff?" Elyse smiled slightly as Zoe caught her eye. 
"Are there some to be avoided?"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nodded; the school could certainly have been worse. She hadn't known what to expect when they'd finally brought her here, but she'd certainly painted several awful pictures. A few of them were akin to a military school, or possibly some kind of asylum of some kind. Thus she'd been pleasantly surprised, for the most part, to find that Bellefonte was much more like a normal boarding school, or, well, normal for a school filled with people that could do strange things, such as reading people's memories from a touch or paralyzing people with a caress.

"It is rather shocking," she agreed, managing the words after Elyse's comment on how many there were. She looked around. "One would think that we've have heard about this before now," though now the word was beginning to leak out, thanks in no small part to Zoe's own actions. She shoved the thought aside for now; Elyse didn't need to know about that; she certainly didn't need to be weighed down by Zoe's problems, not when she had enough to deal with simply adjusting to the new place.

Their eyes met as Elyse spoke of the staff, and Zoe smiled a little, nodding. "I actually had a completely miserable trainer when I first came here," she confessed, scooping a bit of her food up. "He's a man named Nathan Matthews, and you should avoid him. He's very mean," she actually took a bite of food, feeling that she sort of deserved it after having shared some information. She chewed thoughtfully, considering a few others that she could remember. "There are quite a few nice ones too though. The school doctor is a really pretty woman who's quite nice," she commented, after swallowing her food, of course. She reached for a napkin, daintily dabbing at her mouth as she went. Her hand soon fell to her water bottle, moving to reopen it and take another sip.

[Elyse Blackery]

Clearly, the pair of girl's minds were on similar tracks. It seemed impossible for a place like this to exist in secret and yet it seemed to do just that. Perhaps those close to the school knew its secret but Elyse had never heard so much as a whisper of a rumor. Mind you, considering this was now her home, maybe that was for the best.

Well, there was always going to be a few teachers who were... What was the word, dictators? That was probably true in every school, even ones filled with teenagers with unstable powers. Not including Bellefonte, Elyse had been to four schools and they had all had those few teachers who really liked making their student's lives difficult. 
Bellefonte was apparently no exception.

"So Nathan Matthews..? I should run a mile?" Elyse filed that name away for later, just in case. It could be important for later, so it was worth remembering. Hell any little bit of information about this new place would be definitely worth remembering. She needed all the information she could get.
"Are there many trainers here?"

The school nurse? Elyse thought back on her few hours at school but no one stood out.
"I don't think I have met her yet... I suppose there is plenty time." 
With the powers the way they were, she could be here for a long time. That was a little hard to be positive about...